Monthly Archives: February 2015

What’s your favorite State Park, Forest or Scenic Site maybe The Porkies, Belle Isle or Rifle River Recreation Area? There are about a 150 places in Michigan you can camp or visit with your Recreation Passport and I had fun doing this last year, so here we go again for this March. Ludington State park won the tournament in 2014, which park will it be this year? you can see the polls from last year HERE

I broke up the list into 16 random groups. Pick your favorite from each group and we will work it down tournament bracket style to determine the final champion and Michigan’s favorite Park.

Each round will end on Sundays and the winners will be paired up in the next round starting Sunday evening.

Pick one favorite park from each group, the winners will go onto next weeks polls you will view the Current results after you vote.

This round will end Sunday March 8th

Group 1

Leelanau State Park (22%, )

Mears State Park (21%, )

Interlochen State Park (15%, )

Baraga State Park (14%, )

Warren Dunes State Park (11%, )

Brighton Recreation Area (9%, )

Escanaba River State Forest (8%, )

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group 2

Hartwick Pines State Park (48%, )

Sleepy Hollow State Park (17%, )

Fisherman's Island State Park (9%, )

Yankee Springs Recreation Area (9%, )

Lakeport State Park (8%, )

Van Buren Trail State Park (5%, )

Pontiac Lake Recreation Area (4%, )

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Group 3

Brimley State Park (20%, )

Grand Haven State Park (19%, )

Straits State Park (19%, )

South Higgins Lake State Park (19%, )

Hart-Montague Trail State Park (10%, )

Sturgeon Point Scenic Site (6%, )

Ionia State Recreation Area (4%, )

Kal-Haven Trail State Park (3%, )

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Group 4

Rifle River Recreation Area (36%, )

Mackinaw State Forest (34%, )

McLain State Park (F.J. McLain) (11%, )

Craig Lake State Park (5%, )

Wells State Park (4%, )

Menominee River Recreation Area (4%, )

Lake Hudson Recreation Area (3%, )

Sterling State Park (3%, )

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Group 5

Tahquamenon Falls State Park (74%, )

Indian Lake State Park (9%, )

Pinckney Recreation Area (6%, )

Copper Country State Forest (5%, )

Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center (3%, )

Proud Lake State Recreation Area (3%, )

Cambridge Junction Historic State Park (1%, )

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Group 6

Hoffmaster State Park (P.J. Hoffmaster) (32%, )

Muskallonge Lake State Park (22%, )

Bay City Recreation Area (18%, )

Fort Custer Recreation Area (11%, )

Wilson State Park (7%, )

Van Buren State Park (6%, )

Coldwater Lake State Park (3%, )

Warren Woods State Park (1%, )

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group 7

Ludington State Park (48%, )

Lake Superior State Forest (21%, )

Bond Falls Scenic Site (13%, )

Agate Falls Scenic Site (7%, )

Newaygo State Park (5%, )

Thompson's Harbor State Park (4%, )

Lakelands Trail State Park (2%, )

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group 8

Fort Michilimackinac State Park and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse (46%, )

Silver Lakes State Park (27%, )

Muskegon State Park (10%, )

Orchard Beach State Park (7%, )

White Pine Trail State Park (5%, )

Seven Lakes State Park (4%, )

Meridian-Baseline State Park (0%, )

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Group 9

Petoskey State Park (31%, )

Traverse City State Park (18%, )

Belle Isle State Park (17%, )

Otsego Lake State Park (13%, )

Island Lake Recreation Area (9%, )

Duck Lake State Park (8%, )

William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor (3%, )

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Group 10

Au Sable State Forest (44%, )

Mitchell State Park (17%, )

Hoeft State Park (P.H. Hoeft) (14%, )

Port Crescent State Park (14%, )

Negwegon State Park (6%, )

Ortonville Recreation Area (4%, )

Wetzel State Recreation Area (1%, )

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Group 11

Tawas Point State Park (34%, )

Laughing Whitefish Falls Scenic Site (23%, )

Aloha State Park (12%, )

Sleeper State Park (10%, )

Twin Lakes State Park (7%, )

Metamora-Hadley Recreation Area (6%, )

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park (5%, )

Rockport State Park (2%, )

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Group 12

Burt Lake State Park (31%, )

Pere Marquette State Forest (25%, )

Wagner Falls Scenic Site (18%, )

Maybury State Park (11%, )

Bald Mountain Recreation Area (11%, )

Proud Lake Recreation Area (4%, )

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Group 13

Porcupine Mountains State Park (42%, )

Mackinac Island State Park and Fort Mackinac (41%, )

Onaway State Park (5%, )

Historic Mill Creek State Park (4%, )

Waterloo Recreation Area (4%, )

Hayes State Park (2%, )

Bass River Recreation Area (1%, )

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Group 14

Wilderness State Park (34%, )

Fort Wilkins Historic State Park (20%, )

Holland State Park (16%, )

Saugatuck Dunes State Park (15%, )

Clear Lake State Park (8%, )

Algonac State Park (5%, )

Lime Island State Recreation Area (3%, )

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Group 15

North Higgins Lake State Park (26%, )

Cheboygan State Park (25%, )

Harrisville State Park (18%, )

Young State Park (13%, )

Grand Mere State Park (8%, )

Bewabic State Park (7%, )

Dodge #4 State Park (2%, )

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Group 16

Fayette Historic State Park (26%, )

Palms Book State Park (Kitch-iti-kipi Big Spring) (18%, )

Lake Gogebic State Park (15%, )

Holly Recreation Area (15%, )

Van Riper State Park (10%, )

Wagner Falls (8%, )

Highland Recreation Area (8%, )

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The town of Shelldrake, named after a duck common in the area, is a ghost town about 8 miles south of Whitefish Point, at the mouth of the Shelldrake River (also known as the Betsy River) on Whitefish Bay. In the 1890s and early 1900s, it was a thriving sawmill town during peak logging years on the Tahquamenon River watershed. By the 1920s repeated fires and the decline of lumbering led to its demise. Today it is a privately owned ghost town with only a few weathered, original buildings.

I found stories of the area being haunted by an old sea captain who stands on the dock. He has a pipe and a cape and he is usually seen from the lake, as boats approach the shore, he fades away and disappears. While researching the history of Sheldrake, I found out about the Tugboat Grace which was towing a scow in October of 1879 thru whitefish bay headed for Goulais Bay in Canada. During a storm in the early morning the tugboat broke down and drifted onto a sand bar about 200 feet offshore from Sheldrake. The tug filled with water and broke to pieces. The crew made it to shore, and after climbing the bank to safety the captain proclaimed “Thank God, we are all safe” and then suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack. I wonder if that is the captain that has been seen on the docks.

The Penoyer brothers from Bay City, Michigan began the first lumbering operations on the mouth of the Shelldrake River in 1895 with the construction of a sawmill, long docks, and a tramway into Whitefish Bay for loading lumber onto ships. They owned a large block of pine lands in the Tahquamenon River watershed. The Calumet and Hecla copper mining company bought the sawmill and uncut timber in 1899 for their mines. Calumet and Hecla sold out to a Canadian firm, the Bartlett Brothers, in 1910. Lumber milling continued at Shelldrake until 1925 when a fire burned down the sawmill plant for the second time.

By the late 1890s, Shelldrake had a sawmill, houses for workers that were equipped with bathrooms, a hospital, a school house, a post office, and an icehouse that could store enough meat to feed a population of 1,000 through the winter months. All of the buildings were plastered and had hot water piped from the sawdust burner. There was a stagecoach between Eckerman, Michigan and Shelldrake daily in the summer and three times a week during the winter. At one time there was also a passenger ship sailing between Shelldrake and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Shelldrake was listed on Michigan’s Historic Register in 1979 with the period of historical significance designated as 1600–1825. However, Shelldrake did not become settled as a lumber town until the late 1890s. The state marker text reads:
Shelldrake legend has it that Lewis Cass, governor of the Territory of Michigan, and his party of nearly 100 camped here in their search for the source of the Mississippi River in 1820. This area, once a bustling lumbering community, was first settled in the mid-nineteenth century. Shelldrake is now a sleepy resort and hunting place. Few of the weatherbeaten buildings that once faced the long boardwalk remain. This settlement is a reminder of the area’s lumbering era.
Although Shelldrake was sold to private owners during the 1930s,it never developed into a resort or hunting place despite what is recorded on the Michigan historic marker. It is now a privately owned ghost town with only a few weathered, original buildings at the site.

You can kinda see it from the road when your traveling from Paradise to Whitefish Point, but since it’s privately owned be respectful of the owners and don’t go exploring around it. There is a road leading up to it, but I am not sure it was a private road since I was there in the winter time, if it was, I apologize for trespassing. I wanted to get a pic for my Michigan Historical Marker Series, I just snapped a quick pic and left.

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One of my favorite places to get a hamburger is Great Plains Burger Co. in Ann Arbor. It’s one of those places that specializes in making hamburgers and does it extremely well. You place your order at the counter, and they cook patties as you order, so they are fast, fresh and hot when you get them. You have a choice between beef, turkey and black bean. I have had both the beef and the turkey, and either one is grilled to juicy perfection. I like that they give me the healthy options, since I need to be eating healthy, or at least healthier. The buns come from a local Detroit bakery, and are the perfect top and bottom to the patty of your choice. They also have a plethora of toppings to choose from, and you can build your perfect burger.

I think my absolute favorite thing about Great Plains Burger Co, are the unique sauces in the pump thingy over by the fountain pop machine. They have Kentucky bourbon, white BBQ, G. P. Bistro sauce and Caribbean jerk. I wish they would bottle them and sell them but I guess I will just have to keep going back to enjoy them.

They also make some delicious French fries too. Cut from fresh real potatoes and even sweet potatoes. They are the perfect sidekick for the awesome Burger, and they give you plenty of them. My family of four splits a basket of fries. Oh and did I mention the unique Great Plains special sauces, they are great for dipping you fresh made fries into.

For the trifecta of flavor to go along with your burger and fries, they make hand dipped shakes with the milk and ice cream coming from a local dairy. It’s nice to go somewhere and watch someone make a shake and not just stick a cup under a machine and pull a handle to have some brown stuff ooze out of it.

It’s a little ways out of downtown A2, but it’s not to far from us23 and you can take the Plymouth road exit and head west a few miles to get to it quickly so I like to stop there when I am headed along 23 near Ann Arbor.

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The first pioneers of Antrim County settled along Grand Traverse Bay near Elk Rapids in the 1850s. Later settlers moved inland, and urged that the county seat be transferred from the bay shore closer to the geographical center of the county. After a close election in 1879, Keno, later named Bellaire, became the new county seat. Thus began a bitter controversy which was appealed to the state Supreme Court and lasted for twenty-five years. Although the courthouse square was purchased as early as 1879 the county building was not constructed until 1904-05 after another vote. Designed by Jens C. Peterson, and built by Waterman and Price, the courthouse cost $30,000.

This light, the oldest on Lake Superior, began operating in 1849, though the present tower was constructed later. Early a stopping place for Indians, voyageurs, and Jesuit missionaries, the point marks the course change for ore boats and other ships navigating this treacherous coastline to and from St. Mary’s Canal. Since 1971 the light, fog signal, and radio beacon have been automated and controlled from Sault Ste. Marie.

When choosing a place to eat while traveling, sometimes I go by the name of the restaurant to make my decision, and when there is a place called Spikes Keg Of Nails that sounds like a place I have to try. I have been to Grayling several times and for some strange reason I have never eaten there but since a lot of my facebook friends recommended it and it has a cool sounding name I had to try it. You will find them Right in the middle of town on the main drag near the jet (yeah you know what jet I am talking about if you have been to Grayling) and the Au Sable River.

I got a burger and chips, which was way better than your average fast food, but about the same price. I think you can tell a lot about a resturant by the burgers they serve, if they use fresh meat and serve them hot on a good bun then there care about the other items on the menu. This was my first time to Spikes and can only eat so much, but I will have to stop in again and try some more items on the menu, next time I am heading up north There were a plethora of customers when I was there and the service was still fast.

I will definitely take the left handed exit into Grayling and drive past all the chain places on go to Spikes Keg O Nails.

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